Friends, family of Andrew McMorris, Boy Scout killed by drunk driver in 2018, rally in Albany for lower BAC level law
ALBANY, N.Y. -- There were passionate calls for change Tuesday from survivors, local lawmakers and students from Long Island to pass legislation that would lower the blood-alcohol concentration for drunk drivers.
Friends of Andrew McMorris, the Boy Scout killed by a drunk driver in 2018, were on hand in Albany to make sure something positive comes from their friend's death.
Clutching photos of loved ones killed by drunk drivers, the group advocated to lower the BAC threshold for driving while intoxicated from .08 to .05 in New York.
"If our legislators hear our voice today, then Andrew's death won't mean the end of his ability to improve other's around him," one student said.
Shoreham-Wading River High School students, some who were friends with McMorris, who was killed at the age 12 while hiking with his Boy Scout troop, were there, wearing ribbons with his photo.
"It's just not fair. It has to stop," one student said.
"All of us are now around or going to be voting age this year, as Andrew would've been," another student said.
"I want my son's death to mean something," Alisa McMorris said.
Alisa McMorris has been pushing for this for years.
"We need everyone to come sit around the table and say we're getting this done. It's not getting put off another year," Alisa McMorris said.
Sen. John Liu introduced the legislation in 2019.
"We couldn't do anything with it for a couple of years because of COVID. Last year, we had an organizing rally in the state capitol and today we had 100 people there demanding the Legislature take action."
Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon is co-sponsor.
"Most developed countries in the world, about 100 of them, have this standard. In the States, it has only been Utah," Simon said.
In 2022, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a study that found traffic deaths in Utah decreased after the state enacted a law to lower its impaired driving legal limit to .05 in 2018.
The NHTSA recommends every state lower the level to .05, with statistics showing that each year 10,000 people are killed in crashes involving alcohol-impaired drivers.
New York legislators are hoping the law gets approved this session.
"We can choose to be the generation that ends drunk and impaired driving," Alisa McMorris said.
According to the New York Department of Motor Vehicles, a BAC of .05 is legal evidence you are impaired and .08 or higher is evidence of intoxication.
Testimony of a police officer about the way you drive and your appearance and behavior can provide enough evidence to convict you even without a chemical test.
